Water released from AP reservoir to Chennai

By T. Ramakrishnan

CHENNAI, AUG. 25. Water from the Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh was released to Chennai on Friday.

According to the PWD officials here, 200 cusecs of water was let into the 150-km-long Kandaleru-Poondi Canal at 2 p.m. ``The AP authorities have promised us that they would increase the release gradually'', they said.

The initial flows are expected to reach the Tamil Nadu border by September 1.

The decision to discharge water from Kandaleru to Chennai was taken today by Andhra Pradesh in response to the request from Tamil Nadu to expedite the water release.

As the floods in the neighbouring State started receding, the A.P. authorities also intimated their counterpart in Tamil Nadu that they would commence release of water from Somasila to Kandaleru shortly which, in turn, would sustain the release of water for Chennai.

The Somasila reservoir, one of the sources to Kandaleru, reached almost the full level. A heavy quantity of water continued to be discharged from this reservoir to the sea and, at 8 p.m. today, supply of around 1,66,000 cusecs was maintained.

Late on Friday evening, the storage of Somasila was 35 tmc ft against its present capacity of 37.5 tmc. ft. The Kandaleru reservoir, the terminal storage point in Andhra Pradesh, registered an increase in inflow today and the flows were 1,000 cusecs this evening from yesterday's 600 cusecs.

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